Surrey golf - best players, courses and Tales from the 19th

Every month, sports journalist John Whitbread, of the Surrey Golf Partnership, regales Surrey Life magazine readers with tales from the 19th. Below are abridged cuts from our monthly Surrey golf column...

Photo: Peter Dazeley

SUBSCRIBE to Surrey Life magazine
BUY SL online 
GET full access to the digital archive

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine March 2012

Wentworth’s captain fantastic

When he drives up to Wentworth’s imposing clubhouse, Joe Gallagher must feel a mixture of both pride and good fortune.

As the 2012 captain of the famous Virginia Water club, it represents the success of a golfing journey that began as a teenager hitting balls in an overgrown field.

“My brother Michael and I used to live near Harefield Place Golf Club, in Uxbridge, where we used to hunt for lost balls and sell them back to the members,” he recalls with a smile. “Those balls we could not sell we used to hit to each other across the field using clubs we bought from a junk yard for 50p.”

Now 48, Gallagher admits he faces a really hard act following 2011’s larger-than-life captain Lent Pietsch, who raised a remarkable £50,000 for disabled golfing war veterans.

“In an Olympic year, I feel like I am in the high jump, but Lent has raised the bar to pole vault height,” he jokes.

Gallagher has chosen to support five local children’s disability charities, including White Lodge, Chertsey, under the banner of Olivia’s Wish.

His daughter Olivia was one of triplets born prematurely at 24 weeks. Brothers Luke and Ryan sadly died within a year of birth but Olivia, who was delivered at just one pound 11 ounces, is now ten years old – though suffers from cerebral palsy.

“We are so proud of her and so thankful to the charities that have supported her and we want to do everything we can for them,” he adds.

Previous fund-raising efforts have already resulted in the building of the Gallagher Suite, where parents of disabled children can stay overnight at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey.

With this inspiring man at the helm, it certainly looks set be another memorable year in this distinguished club’s history.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine February 2012

Women’s golf in Surrey

If Surrey’s male golfers have had a good year, then the same can certainly be said of our ladies.

Among the female ranks, the most heartening story was how Ottershaw’s evergreen international star Laura Davies helped a largely inexperienced European team claim a memorable 15-13 Solheim Cup victory over the red hot United States favourites in Dublin.

The 47-year-old West Byfleet Golf Club favourite, who has won 81 tournaments around the world, including both the US and British Opens, has played in all 12 of the biennial transatlantic golfing battles, of which Europe has won just four.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine January 2012

A focus on Surrey’s men’s game

While golf may not be part of this year’s Olympics (it’s due to return for the 2016 games after a century-long absence), we can at least console ourselves that Surrey’s male golfers go into 2012 in fine health and full of confidence after another super 12 months on and off the course.

Topping the list was Wentworth’s Steven Brown who won the English Amateur Championship and went on to join Stiggy Hodgson of Sunningdale to play a starring role in Great Britain and Ireland’s thrilling Walker Cup victory over the elite amateurs of the United States.

The English Golf Union’s fine squad saw Brown and Hodgson joined by Surrey men Andrew Cooley, Warren Harmston, Josh White and Alex Christie.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine October 2011

Help for Heroes Battle Back Golfers from Headley Court, Leatherhead

IT’S all too easy for sports writers to fall into the trap of calling a football team’s comeback ‘brave’ or a cricketer’s century ‘courageous’. Such words of praise were totally deserved, however, on a very special day at Wentworth recently – yet even they do not seem enough to fully convey the truly remarkable triumph of sporting spirit over adversity. Twenty-two soldiers, sailors and air force men, some competing with one or two prosthetic legs, artificial arms, or one eye, each skippered a team of members and guests at the Wentworth Captain’s Day on the Edinburgh Course.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine September 2011

Surrey's brightest young golfing stars

THE exploits of young English amateur Tom Lewis thrilled millions at this year’s Open Championship. He is far from a lone prospect for an international future, however, with two of Surrey’s brightest young guns – Henry Smart and Ben Taylor – also making waves in the sport.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine August 2011

Why the men better watch out...

BRITISH golf has never had it so good, with a record five players – including Surrey's Paul Casey – in the top 10 of the world golf rankings. But when it comes to Britain’s women, it is a rather different and far less uplifting story. You have to cast your eyes right down to No. 49 in the world before you find our first entrant – and that is Ottershaw’s 47-year-old evergreen star Laura Davies ... If commitment and dedication count, however, then Wentworth’s scholarship and junior programmes might just have found the answer, with a quintet of highly talented youngsters aiming for the top. Wentworth’s five in a bid for fame are Dana Greenslade, Abbie Audsley, Jessica Sewell, Inci Mehmet, and Annabel Dimmock.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine July 2011

Senior Open Championship at Walton Heath

ALWAYS a highlight of the golfing calendar, the Senior Open Championship will be viewed with even more relish than usual this year. When the world’s top over-50 players tee up at Walton Heath Golf Club later this month, it will mark a special reunion for members of the European and United States teams who did battle on the famous Surrey course in the unforgettable 1981 Ryder Cup match. Most sporting experts agree that the 12 men who competed under the Stars and Stripes that September share with Michael Jordan’s 1992 Olympic basketball squad the title of America’s best-ever sporting team ... It was the first Ryder Cup that I attended as a journalist, and as sports editor of the Surrey Herald, I had special interest in Wentworth duo Bernard Gallacher and Sandy Lyle.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine June 2011

Coombe Hill, Kingston celebrates its centenary year

YOU arrive at Coombe Hill Golf Club via a rather bland suburban side street just off the A3 at Kingston, but bland is the very last way to describe this historic club, known for its style and panache, and with so much to celebrate in its centenary year ... For a start, the membership list could easily have been lifted from the pages of Debretts or Who’s Who, headed by the royal approval of the Prince of Wales, later to become Edward VIII, and the Duke of York, who reigned as George VI after his brother’s abdication (pictured together). Winston Churchill was an early member and he was joined on the fairways by Herbert Asquith and David Lloyd George. Prominent writers such as Somerset Maugham and James Bond creator Ian Fleming shared the tees with media magnates Lords Northcliffe, Beaverbrook and Rothermere, while London Palladium impressario Val Parnell introduced American superstars Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye to Coombe Hill’s delights.

Originally published in Surrey Life magazine May 2011

Surrey's best players and courses

Leading the way on the world stage are Ryder Cup stars Paul Casey and Ross Fisher, both products of trail-blazing scholarship schemes ... Casey, 33, from Weybridge, who gained his scholarship at Foxhills in Ottershaw and was a junior at Burhill, before having his skills honed at Arizona State University, is currently ranked sixth in the world ... Meanwhile, 30-year-old Fisher, a star of the European team’s fantastic victory over the USA in last year’s thrilling Ryder Cup match at Celtic Manor, learned his golf as a student on the Wentworth scholarship foundation ...A strong supporting cast includes fellow Ryder Cup stars Oliver Wilson, from Weybridge, and David Howell, from Virginia Water, as well as European Tour regulars James Morrison, from Chertsey, and Nick Dougherty and Anthony Wall, who live on the border in Sunningdale ... Our county can also lay claim to the queen of British women’s golf, Ottershaw’s evergreen star Laura Davies ... Success has not been limited to our county’s players, however, with no fewer than ten courses, more than any other county, featuring in Golf Monthly’s United Kingdom top 100. There are plaudits for Sunningdale Old and New (both courses are in Surrey, despite the town and clubhouse being over the border in Berkshire); Wentworth West and East; Walton Heath Old and New; St George’s Hill, Weybridge; Woking; Hankley Common; and West Hill, Woking. 

• The Surrey Golf Partnership comprises 111 clubs in our county, which are
  also affiliated to the Surrey Golf Union and the Surrey Ladies Golf Union. For details, see www.surreygolfpartnership.com.

Members Comments

There are no comments for this article.

Add a Comment

Please log in to post a comment.